Advances in precision livestock farming

"Precision farming is growing rapidly across the globe, and I'm very pleased to see the expertise of the individuals who have been brought together for this project. I fully expect that this publication will be highly sought and cited by farmers, advisors, researchers and students around the world. I look forward to seeing this important contribution to the precision farming body of knowledge." Dr David Kelton, DFO Research Chair in Dairy Cattle Health/Professor of Epidemiology, University of Guelph, Canada The livestock sector is facing increasing pressure to develop more ‘climate-smart’ methods that can be used to prevent the onset of major diseases, whilst also monitoring the efficiency and environmental impact of livestock production. Advances in precision livestock farming provides a comprehensive review of recent advances in the development of precision livestock technologies to monitor the health and welfare of animals as well as key areas of production such as housing and feed efficiency. The collection includes chapters on monitoring key health issues such as mastitis, lameness and fertility together with areas such as milking and grazing management. Edited by a leading researcher in the field, Advances in precision livestock farming will be a standard reference for livestock scientists in universities and research centres, precision farming manufacturers, and government and private sector agencies involved in the regulation of new technologies to improve the health and welfare of livestock. Professor Daniel Berckmans has been associated with the Katholieke Universiteit Leuven (Belgium) for 40 years where he was Head of the M3-BIORES (Measure, Model and Manage Bioresponses) Division for over 20 years as a full professor. His team is widely regarded as a world leader in precision livestock farming, producing over 350 publications and over 450 conference papers, with 17 new products brought to market in collaboration with industrial partners and 20 patents submitted. He has coordinated a number of EU research projects and is co-founder of two spin-off companies from his research. In 2003 he started the European Conferences on Precision Livestock Farming (ECPLF) which reached its 10th anniversary in 2022. Professor Berckmans has also been appointed Adjunct Distinguished Professor at the University of Tennessee to help develop precision livestock farming research in the USA.